


Just Seventeen

by fits_in_frames



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-03
Updated: 2005-08-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1567994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fits_in_frames/pseuds/fits_in_frames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The absolute last thing he wants to do tonight is go out and make a fool of himself trying to dance to songs his parents used to play for him when he was five years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Seventeen

**Author's Note:**

> _well she was just seventeen_  
>  _you know what i mean_  
>  {the beatles // i saw her standing there}  
> 

"This is _ridiculous_ , Sirius. Do we have to go a place that's stuck in the '60s?" James feels like an idiot, with slacks and a tie and saddle shoes and grease in his hair. The absolute last thing he wants to do tonight is go out and make a fool of himself trying to dance to songs his parents used to play for him when he was five years old.

Sirius stops him with an outstretched arm. "I never thought I'd see it," he says with a false sound of shock in his voice. "Remus wants to go and have fun and James doesn't. Oh, by my great-aunt Phoebe!"

Remus punches him. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say about your best mate _or_ your 'main man', as you are so fond of calling me." He starts to walk, then stops and turns on his heel. "And you don't even _have_ a great-aunt Phoebe, you great sodding lunatic."

"Lunatic? You're one to talk!" Sirius sticks out his tongue and Remus rolls his eyes and Sirius kisses him, messily. James thinks he may be sick. Peter, a few paces back, giggles.

Remus pushes off and entwines his fingers in Sirius'. "You kiss like a dog, did I ever tell you that?"

"Well, he _is_ a dog, at least some of the time," Peter mentions, quietly. James is suddenly very grateful for Peter's knack for pointing out the obvious. Remus and Sirius either don't hear him or pretend not to.

"Where are we _going_ , anyway?" They have been walking for a good fifteen minutes. Sirius had said it would be a surprise.

"It's a surprise, Jamesy-Wamesy."

James shoves his hands in his pockets and watches the ground pass under his feet. Somewhere across the city, a Muggle car horn blares, but otherwise the summer air is silent. He sniffs, if only to distract himself from his own feet.

"Here we are." Sirius sounds triumphant. _Willie's Soda Counter_ , the marquee reads. The windows are covered with what seems to be black paper. The exterior is freshly painted an obnoxious shade of teal. Otherwise, he thinks, this shop is extraordinarily ordinary, even for a Muggle establishment. "Heard about this place from, uh, one of the fourth years who lives around here. It's for Muggles and magic folk, he said." He doesn't sound convincing. For what is probably the first time in his life, Remus looks like he is going to spit on the ground. He doesn't.

"Um," Peter says.

"Well? Don't just stand there, go _in_." Sirius opens the door at this last word. The room inside is dark, lit only by Christmas tree lights and the orange tips of cigarettes bobbing up and down. As his eyes adjust to the light, he sees girls in dresses with great pink bows on the back and tiny black buttons down the front and frilly stuff at the bottom. The boys are all dressed like they are.

" _Ridiculous_ ," James says under his breath and follows the other three to the counter, where Remus jumps onto a stool and asks for "a Coke". Sirius kisses him on the cheek and disappears into the crowd, leaving James and Peter to stand there feeling awkward. Remus tell them to sit, but only Peter does, hands neatly folded in his lap. Remus pulls a box out of his jacket pocket. He taps it against the counter and pulls out a single, slender cigarette, which he immediately puts in his mouth. He offers the box to Peter, who refuses, and to James, who says, stupidly, "I didn't know you smoked."

"I don't." He lights a match, touches it to the end of the cigarette, inhales and shakes the match out. His next few words are shrouded in smoke. "Not usually, anyway. Just here."

"You've been here before?" Peter asks. James wonders why Remus, who has been of age since March, didn't just use his wand to light up.

Another puff of smoke. "Well not _here_ , per se. But how else would I know what to wear?" He picks up his drink and winks at them. The music, which James hasn't noticed until now, has stopped. He hears the clink of glass hitting floor behind him and is not the least bit surprised to see Sirius standing on the counter, grinning. As soon as the music picks up again, he starts singing along ( _you ain't nothin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time_ ), and Remus joins him on the counter, tapping toes and flailing arms and twisting hips and all. Peter ogles them indiscreetly.

"Ridiculous," James says. He scrubs his face with his hands and tries to sink on his stool, but only succeeds in falling off. It is then that she catches his eye.

Her dress matches her eyes perfectly and clashes beautifully with her braided hair. She has on Muggle make-up that he can see from across the room. She smiles at him. For the life of him, he cannot move.

"Sirius?" Peter says, far away, with a hint of distress in his voice. "I think he found her."

She walks, slowly, across the dance floor, dress swishing, shoes clicking. Suddenly, she is standing right over him, still smiling. He looks from her face to her outstretched hand and back again. He takes her hand and bounces on to his feet.

"Hello James," she says, still holding his hand.

"Hello Lily," he says with a voice so distant and shaky that it can't be his own.

Her expression turns slightly sour as she looks past him. "Hello Sirius, Peter. Remus." They have stopped dancing, and he can feel all their eyes, burning into his back, waiting for him to screw this up.

He clears his heart out of his throat. "Would you, uh, like to dance?"

She directs her attention back to him, all smiles and sunshine and rainbows and perfection again. "I would love to." And she drags him by the wrist on to an open spot on the dance floor. The tune has changed again ( _you're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off of you_ ), and she plants his hand on her hip. His legs feel all jumpy and noodly and wrong. She leads.

"This was Sirius' idea, wasn't it?" he blurts out.

She looks at him, slightly bewildered. "What gave you that idea?"

"Well, I--I don't know." He feels like he has just donated his liver.

She leans into his ear. "It was both of us," she whispers. "We both planned this." She pulls back and smiles warmly.

"I'm never going to forgive him for this, you know." He steps on her toe, but she doesn't seem to notice.

"And me?" She flutters her eyelashes at him. He grins stupidly. She kisses his cheek and he suddenly feels like he's going to throw up. "That's what I thought."

Several things make sense in the span of five seconds. "You told him about this place, didn't you? And Sirius and I are the only purebloods in this building, aren't we?"

"No and yes," she says with the cunning of a fox stalking her prey. "I told _Remus_ about this place, fourth year. We went here on our first date, you know."

The song ends, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Remus and Sirius leaning against the counter, holding hands. Remus smokes his cigarette absently and Sirius winks.

She looks over at them and says, a little sadly, "But that was a long time ago, and things were different then." The room is filled with applause as the next song is put on the turntable.

 _1, 2, 3, 4!_ the voice on the stereo says, kicking off a song he's heard at least a thousand times. He closes his eyes for a moment and sees his father, awkwardly twisting his hips in an attempt to keep up with his mother's wild footwork. They're holding hands and his mother slides on her heels between his father's legs, only to be pulled up a second later. He stamps his foot and she jumps and James can't tell if the smash he hears on the other side of the house is thunder or a dish crashing on the floor, but doesn't have the heart to tell them, so he continues to clap his tiny hands together. He sings along with his father ( _oh we danced through the night, and we held each other tight_ ), and then opens his eyes, only to realizes Lily can actually hear him, all off-key and shaky and terrible. His ear are very warm all of a sudden.

And then, during the guitar solo, he does something his father did on those rainy nights. He closes his eyes, and kisses her. Somewhere across the room, he hears Sirius cheering him on. She breaks the kiss, jumps and wraps her legs around him and kisses him all over his face. He swings her around and puts her down. His hands melt into her waist and he no longer feels like his spleen is doing back flips.

As the song ends, she leans into his ear again. He can hear her over all the noise in the room, and he is desperately glad she doesn't have to shout.

"Happy birthday, James."


End file.
